I must be getting old. I think I wrote that sentence the first time about 25 years ago, when the Michigan Department of Natural Resources was first considering crossbows for deer hunting. It did, and we’re starting to hear new murmurings about the end times.

And it isn’t happening only here.

The problem two decades ago, at least to critics and traditional bowhunters, was that crossbows were too easy and too effective. Of course, the question of who exactly qualifies as a traditional bowhunter is as old as sharpened sticks.

I shoot a now-ancient Darton compound with a 75-pound draw. The old-timer who grows his own yew trees to carve into one-piece longbows looks down his nose at me. We both have trouble accepting the idea that something with a trigger and electronic sights qualifies as archery tackle.

But we’re about to be outnumbered.

About 206,000 Michigan deer hunters used crossbows in the 2017 archery season. They killed 93,000 deer — a quarter of all deer taken last year. It is also legal to use crossbows during most of the other seasons — there are exceptions in the Upper Peninsula — so the crossbow harvest is presumably higher than 93,000.

What’s astonishing is the 39 percent success rate for crossbow shooters. By comparison, 25 percent of hunters were successful during the Nov. 15-30 firearm deer season.

Illinois, which let anyone use a crossbow last year, calculates that crossbow shooters are about three times as successful as hunters using traditional archery gear — whatever that is.

The statistics are worrying the Archery Trade Association, which represents the people and companies who manufacture and sell archery gear, including crossbows. At its April meeting, ATA board members voted to reconsider their anything-goes stance on crossbow technology and to consider reining them in.

The fear is that state agencies, such as the Michigan and Wisconsin DNRs, will realize that things like the Barnett Ghost 410 CRT isn’t exactly a primitive weapon and its users shouldn’t have a 10-week season. Curtailing archery seasons or placing new regulatory limits on crossbows would bring the booming crossbow industry to a sudden stop.

What shook up Wisconsin is, for the first time, crossbow users took more deer in 2017 than vertical bow users. Forty-five percent of archery hunters used crossbows, but they accounted for 51 percent of the archery harvest.

The Barnett Ghost propels arrows at an amazing 410 feet per second and promises to be easy to shoot. It sort of looks like a bow. The only difficult thing might be cocking it — it has a 185-pound draw weight.

Reviewers say they have no problem shooting 2-inch groups at 75 yards and that it delivers enough down-range energy to stop an African elephant.

It might be hard to find, though. It is popular. Barnett has a new model, the 420, that you can pick up for about $950.

For all the wringing of hands, the Ghost 410 delivers 125 foot-pounds of energy at point-blank range. That is lots more than my old Darton, but only about a tenth as much as a slug out of a 12-gauge.

Crossbows are new and evolving. The technology will keep growing — probably until nobody can cock them anymore — and the rules will need to evolve to protect safety and the tenets of fair chase and conservation.